The present invention relates to a thermal processing system and method for processing thermally developable film which includes a kiosk.
In the conventional practice of color photography, silver halide film is developed by a chemical technique requiring several steps consisting of latent image developing, bleaching, fixing and washing with the active reagents supplied in dilute solutions. While this technique has been perfected over many years and results in exceptional images, the technique requires the delivery and disposal of several chemicals and precise control of times and temperatures of development. Further, because of the mechanical constraints inherent in a wet solution process, the conventional silver halide chemical development technique is not particularly suitable for utilization with compact developing apparatuses. Nevertheless, attempts to provide convenient processing in customer oriented kiosks have been described by Sabbagh in EPO Published Application 0,234,833; by Bostic in U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,351; by Manico in U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,016 and by Meyers in U.S. Pat. No. 5,664,253. These approaches have not proven to be viable because of the problems mentioned above. Further, the chemical technique which is a wet processing technique is also not easily performed in the home or small office.
Imaging systems that do not rely on conventional wet processing have received increased attention in recent years. Photothermographic imaging systems have been employed for producing silver images. Typically, these imaging systems have exhibited very low levels of radiation-sensitivity and have been utilized primarily where only low imaging speeds are required. A method and apparatus for developing a heat developing film is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,587,767 to Islam et al. Summaries of photothermographic imaging systems are published Research Disclosure, Volume 170, June 1978, Item 17029, and Volume 299, March 1989, Item 29963. Other heat development color photographic materials have been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,021,240 to Cerquone et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,698,365 to Tuguchi et al.
In a related area, commercial products such as Color Dry Silver supplied from Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company and Pictography(trademark) and Pictrostat(trademark) supplied by Fuji Film Co., Ltd. that allow for the convenient production of prints suitable for direct viewing without further magnification have been on the market. These products however do not provide for the convenient development processing of films formatted for use in hand-held cameras because such films require high magnification before they are suitable for viewing. The processes and products of these manufacturers are incompatible with that need. An apparatus for thermal development that enables the use of a thrust cartridge is disclosed by Szajewski at al in U.S. Pat. No. 6,048,110 and by Stoebe et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,062,746.
There remains a need for a user friendly arrangement for processing film that is convenient, rapid and gives the consumer multiple processing options.
The present invention therefore provides for a thermal processing system and method which incorporates a multi-functional kiosk, is user friendly and facilitates image processing.
The present invention relates to a thermal processing kiosk which comprises a user interface control for inputting information; an opening adapted to accept a film cassette containing exposed thermal film therein; a thermal processor for processing said exposed thermal film at least in accordance with the information to develop images on the film; and a scanner for scanning the images to create a digital image record file of the images.
The present invention further relates to an image processing method which comprises the steps of: purchasing photographic film and paying for processing of the film prior to exposure of the purchased film; and associating an identifier with the photographic film indicating that processing for the film has been pre-paid.
The present invention further relates to a photographic film cassette having unexposed film therein, wherein an identifier is associated with at least one of the cassette or the film to indicate that processing for the unexposed film in the cassette has been pre-paid.